Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's already illegal.
Agreed, it's just that there's no tribunal to bring the case to.
So does it set a precedent that the humble citizen is able to do it without legal ramifications?
GNU hackers discover HACIENDA government surveillance
21–30 of 83 posts
Re: GNU hackers discover HACIENDA government surveillance
#22I can't really take much more of this... What is their goal?
Gathering foreign intelligence. It's not like their overarching mission is a huge secret. http://www.nsa.gov/about/mission/index.shtml
At the expense of the sanity and security of those who the foreign intelligence is meant to protect?
This is an obvious abuse with extreme existential consequences.
Sort of reminds of this book I read as a kid: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momo_(novel)#Plot_summary
Re: GNU hackers discover HACIENDA government surveillance
#23We are bored in the city, there is no longer any Temple of the Sun. Between the legs of the women walking by, the dadaists imagined a monkey wrench and the surrealists a crystal cup. That’s lost. We know how to read every promise in faces — the latest stage of morphology. The poetry of the billboards lasted twenty years. We are bored in the city, we really have to strain to still discover mysteries on the sidewalk bi…
This makes me wonder, how does the NSA choose their goofy codenames?
I'm sure they have an app for that. Maybe more than one.
Re: GNU hackers discover HACIENDA government surveillance
#24Disturbingly, the HACIENDA system actually hijacks civilian computers to do some of its dirty work, allowing it to leach computing resources and cover its tracks. Yeah, that is disturbing, and it should be made illegal.
I think it's already illegal.
Each country probably had the others do the dirty work in their own country, a legal loophole.
Re: GNU hackers discover HACIENDA government surveillance
#25It bugs me that tap to zoom doesn't work on this site.
Re: GNU hackers discover HACIENDA government surveillance
#26Good luck port scanning ipv6 at random. I really hope all this some day is just some horrible chapter in a book that remembers how governments used to spy on their own citizens and how crazy that seems to everyone "now".
Governments are either kept honest by a vigilant population of actual citizens (instead of people only interested in their personal affairs ) or are mostly a tool for the rich and powerful to maintain a favorable order. (The only third alternative to a government for the multitudes and a government for the rich is the direct rule of the rich and powerful without or with minimal government, as in the calls for "deregu…
> as in the calls for "deregulation" which seldom favor the average Joe
Can you give an example of deregulation that doesn't favor the average Joe? I can't think of one.
Re: GNU hackers discover HACIENDA government surveillance
#27Re: GNU hackers discover HACIENDA government surveillance
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Gathering foreign intelligence. It's not like their overarching mission is a huge secret. http://www.nsa.gov/about/mission/index.shtml
At the expense of the sanity and security of those who the foreign intelligence is meant to protect? This is an obvious abuse with extreme existential consequences. Sort of reminds of this book I read as a kid: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momo_(novel)#Plot_summary
>At the expense of the sanity and security of those who the foreign intelligence is meant to protect?
Correct.
NSA would say "the ends justify the means in this case". As they would say of literally all of their programs.
Re: GNU hackers discover HACIENDA government surveillance
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed, it's just that there's no tribunal to bring the case to.
So does it set a precedent that the humble citizen is able to do it without legal ramifications?
In a sense, yes. There will be ramifications, of course, but they are entirely extralegal.
It's best not to think of the Five Eyes as being nations of laws.
Re: GNU hackers discover HACIENDA government surveillance
#30Good luck port scanning ipv6 at random. I really hope all this some day is just some horrible chapter in a book that remembers how governments used to spy on their own citizens and how crazy that seems to everyone "now".
>I really hope all this some day is just some horrible chapter in a book that remembers how governments used to spy on their own citizens and how crazy that seems to everyone "now".
Sadly I'm not sure if this will ever happen, at least not for a very long time. Governments are just going to make the surveillance more subtle, as technology and research improves.